House Bill to Trim Early Voting is DOA

A House bill that would curtail the number of early voting days in Texas — an effort labeled by Democrats as the next wave of Republican-led voter suppression efforts in the state — is headed nowhere.

State Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Houston, said she intends to pull the proposal from consideration in the House Elections Committee and have the idea turned into an interim study after it was confronted with staunch opposition at hearing Monday.

The bill, HB 2093, would reduce the number of early voting days for Texans to seven from 12.

“This needs to be studied more,” Harless told reporters after the hearing. “There’s enough opposition … and without complete information we need to study it more.”

At the hearing, the bill quickly drew fire from Democrats on the panel, who labeled the push to shrink the number of early voting days in Texas as part of a national move by Republicans to make it harder for people to vote.

“Let’s get down to what this is really about. It’s about suppression of votes,” said state Rep. Borris Miles, D-Houston. “I don’t think the state of Texas would like to go in that direction.”

Florida and Ohio have passed laws reducing the number of early voting days. Both laws, however, have been mired in court challenges, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott has called for his state to revert back to 14 early voting days.

At least six other states are currently considering their own proposals to reduce the number of early voting days, according to the Brennan Center For Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Supporters of HB 2039 argued Monday that trimming the number of early voting days would ease the financial burden for staffing at poll locations and would also make it easier to recruit volunteers.

“This bill is not about voter suppression, it’s not about limiting access to the polls,” Harless said. “This is about how much money, how much time, how much resources we’re going to apply for early voting. The trend is definitely that people enjoy the ability to early vote. This bill is not about limiting that.”